Anchor support

ABSTRACT

An anchor support presents an upwardly facing recess for snugly receiving the crown of a Danforth or similar type anchor to store the anchor in an upright position on deck or elsewhere. The recess in the anchor support has end walls that are inclined upward and inward toward each other at substantially the same angles as the opposite ends of the crown of the anchor. A clamping bolt extends through one of these end walls on the support to hold the anchor crown snugly against the opposite end wall of the support.

United States Patent [191 Bond ANCHOR SUPPORT [76] Inventor: Frank Bond, 2248 S.W. 34th Ter.,

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33312 [22] Filed: July 30, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 384,036

[52] US. Cl. 114/210 [51] Int. Cl B63b 21/22 [58] Field of Search 114/206 R, 210, 221; 248/310, 346, 350

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,531,626 ll/l950 Hull 248/310 3,204.597 9/1965 Benedict et al.. 114/210 3,220,685 ll/l965 Himler 248/350 3,511,001 5/1970 Morgan 248/350 [451 July 30,1974

Primary Examiner-Trygve M. Blix Assistant ExaminerGalen L. Barefoot Attorney, Agent, or Firm-O1tman and Flynn [57] ABSTRACT An anchor support presents an upwardly facing recess for snugly receiving the crown of a Danforth or similar type anchor to store the anchor in an upright position on deck or elsewhere. The recess in the anchor support has end walls that are inclined upward and inward toward each other at substantially the same angles as the opposite ends of the crown of the anchor. A clamping bolt extends through one of these end walls on the support to hold the anchor crown snugly against the opposite end wall of the support.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures ANCHOR SUPPORT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Danforth and similar anchors have come into extensive use for anchoring boats. To store such anchors one common practice has been to lay the anchor horizontally on the deck of the boat, with the flukes folded up to lie more or less in substantially the same horizontal plane as the shank, directly above the deck. The deck may have chocks for slidably receiving the crown of the anchor, and'the ring end of the anchor is suitably tied to the deck. Danforth and similar type anchors stored horizontally on deck in this fashion take up considerable deck space that might otherwise be used for other purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a novel and improved anchor support thatenables a Danforth or similar anchor to be stored upright on deck, or elsewhere on the boat, so as to take up a minimum of deck space.

In the preferred embodiment, the present invention is constituted by a deck-mounted support that presents an upwardly-facing recess for snugly receiving and supporting the crown of a Danforth anchor so that the shank and the folded-up flukes of this anchor can extend upright from this support and thereby take up a minimum of deck space.

More detailed objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of a presently preferred embodiment thereof, which is shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a Danforth anchor which may be supported upright by the present anchor support;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view showing the FIG. 1 anchor folded up and stored upright on deck by the present anchor support, and with the shank of the anchor lashed to a rail of the boat;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the present anchor support; and

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section through this anchor support, taken along the line 4-4 in FIG. 3.

Before explaining the disclosed embodiment of the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of the particular arrangement shown, since the invention is capable of other embodiments. Also, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

Referring first to FIG. 1, the Danforth anchor shown there has a straight, elongated shank with an opening 11 at its ring end and a crown 12 at its opposite end. This crown comprises a pair of end plates 13 and 14 which are located respectively on opposite sides of the shank and are interconnected by a pair of rigid cross pieces 15. These end plates 13, 14 of the crown are substantially flat, and they are inclined upward and inward toward each other at opposite acute angles to the axis of the shank 10. A rod 16 extends horizontally, perpendicular to the cross pieces of the crown l2, and flukes 17 and 18 are welded to this rod on opposite sides of the crown. The crown 12, the rod 16, and the flukes 17, 18 may be pivoted as a unit with respect to the shank 10 from an extended position of the flukes (FIG. 1) to a folded-up position (FIG. 2) in which the flukes are substantially aligned with the shank 10. The end plates 13 and 14 of the crown have'generally V- shaped recesses 13a and 14a at the top for engagement by the nearby edge of the shank l0 to limit the extended movement of the flukes 17, 18 on either side of the shank 10.

The anchor support of the present invention isa rigid shoe having a-bottom wall 20 (FIG. 4) and opposite end walls 21 and 22 which extend up past the bottom wall and are inclined upward and inward toward each other to provide substantially the same angle between them as the angle between the end plates 13, 14 on the crown of the anchor. A pair of opposite, vertical side walls 23'and 24 (FIG. 3) extend between and join the end walls above and below the bottom wall. As best seen in FIG. 4, the bottom wall 20 is inclined upward from the bottom edge of the end wall 22 to a location on the end wall 21 above its bottom edge. In the preferred embodiment, as shown, the end walls 21 and 22 are inclined at equal and opposite angles to the bottom wall 20 (which itself is inclined to the horizontal). Consequently, when the anchor crown is seated in the anchor support with the bottom edges of its end plates 13, 14 resting directly on the bottom wall 20 of the support, the shank 10 of the anchor will extend upward from the anchor support at a small angle to the vertical that is sufficient to position the rod end of the shank slightly beyond the end wall 22 of the anchor support. This facilitates the typing of the anchor shank near its rod end to a rail or bulkhead on the boat when the anchor support is positioned next to such rail or bulkhead. The respective top edges of the side walls are concave downwardly at 23a (FIG. 2) and 24a (FIG. 4), respectively, for about half of their length midway between the end walls 21 and 22. These downwardly offset recesses at 23a and 24a in the side walls provide clearance for the lower ends of the flukes 17, 18 just below the rod 16 on the anchor.

A clamping bolt 25 extends perpendicularly through the end wall 22, and a nut 26 threadedly engages this bolt at the outside of this end wall. The bottom wall 20 has openings 28 at opposed comers. The bottom wall 20 also has central openings 30.

In the use of this anchor support, as shown in FIG. 2, after the flukes l7, 18 have been folded up, the crown 12 of the anchor is inserted down into the upwardly facing recess provided by the vertical side walls 23, 24 and the sloping end walls 21, 22 above the bottom wall 20 of the support. The inclined end plate 13 on the crown of the anchor extends substantially contiguous to the inside face of the end wall 21. Any clearance between the opposite end plate 14 of the anchor crown and the adjacent end wall 22 of the anchor support may be taken up by turning the bolt 25 until its inner end engages the end plate 14 of the anchor crown and forces the opposite end plate 13 of the anchor crown snugly against the end wall 21 of the anchor support.

The anchor support may be fastenedto the deck or to any other substantially horizontal support in any suitable fashion. As shown in FIG. 2, the anchor support may rest on a pad P on the deck next to the rail, and the shank 10 may be suitably lashed to a horizontal rail member R on the boat near its upper end.

Preferably, the pad P is of teak or mahogany. Preferably, also, the shank 10 extends upward and outward toward the rail at an angle of about to the vertical.

Similarly, the anchor support may be mounted on deck next to a bulkhead to which the upper end of the shank is tied in a similar fashion.

From FIG. 2 it will be apparent that the present support stores the Danforth anchor securely in a substantially upright position so as to minimize the deck space taken up by the stored anchor. It positions the upright anchor shank at a slight angle to the vertical to facilitate lashing its upper end to a rail or bulkhead next to which the anchor support is positioned.

I claim:

1. An anchor support for receiving an upstanding anchor, comprising:

a squared shoe structure having four adjoining upstanding walls defining an upwardly facing recess with two opposed ones of said walls inclining upward and inward toward each other so that said recess has a lesser area at the top of said structure than at the bottom thereof,

said shoe structure having a planar bottom wall at the bottom of said upwardly facing recess which slopes upward from one of said upwardly inclined walls toward the opposite upwardly inclined wall,

the other two of said four upstanding walls being vertical and each having an upper edge with a downwardly concave configuration,

a clamping bolt extending through one of said upwardly inclined walls into said recess,

a nut engaging said bolt on the outside of said one wall,

and means forming at least one opening in said bottom wall.

2. The anchor support as claimed in claim 1 including means forming additional openings in said bottom wall. 

1. An anchor support for receiving an upstanding anchor, comprising: a squared shoe structure having four adjoining upstanding walls defining an upwardly facing recess with two opposed ones of said walls inclining upward and inward toward each other so that said recess has a lesser area at the top of said structure than at the bottom thereof, said shoe structure having a planar bottom wall at the bottom of said upwardly facing recess which slopes upward from one of said upwardly inclined walls toward the opposite upwardly inclined wall, the other two of said four upstanding walls being vertical and each having an upper edge with a downwardly concave configuration, a clamping bolt extending through one of said upwardly inclined walls into said recess, a nut engaging said bolt on the outside of said one wall, and means forming at least one opening in said bottom wall.
 2. The anchor support as claimed in claim 1 including means forming additional openings in said bottom wall. 